An estimated 3.6 million U.S. households – or about three out of every 100 – reported being victims of identity theft, according to a government study that counted misuse of someone else’s cell phone, credit card or personal information.

The figures released by the Justice Department differ from the findings of a previous Federal Trade Commission study that estimated 9.3 million victims of the crime for the same period.

The department said the most-frequent victims of identity theft were households headed by people ages 18 to 24, those in urban or suburban areas, and those with incomes of at least $75,000.

The study was based on interviews with members of 42,000 randomly selected households over the last half of 2004, said Katrina Baum, a statistician with the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Of the 3.6 million victimized households, the study said:

An estimated 1.7 million discovered unauthorized use of credit cards in the six-month period. That is about 48 percent of households reporting identity-theft crimes, and 1.5 percent of all U.S. households.

About 900,000 households experienced theft from other types of existing accounts, such as a cell-phone account, bank account or debit checking account. That is about a quarter of households with thefts and 0.8 percent of all U.S. households.

Roughly 540,000 households said someone had misused personal information of someone in the home to open accounts, get loans or commit other crimes. That was 15 percent of households reporting identify theft and 0.5 percent of all U.S. households.

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